


fix you

by squiirby



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Cybernetics, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Robots, She-Ra Season 4, She-Ra Season 4 Spoilers, Spoilers, also let THEM be happy, but also fluffy! but mostly angst., i need this ship, i need to be happy, please let me be happy, this is a little angsty im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-24 00:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21329572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squiirby/pseuds/squiirby
Summary: “Identify yourself,” he says. The tone of voice is cold and sharp and definitely Hordak's, but for some reason it makes her uncomfortable. It doesn’t sound like him, not really. It’s something much older and darker and far scarier.“Er...it’s Entrapta.” She gives him a little wave and her best smile despite the circumstances. “Remember? I’m your...” The word gets caught in her throat. She searches desperately for an alternative, before finally choking out, “...lab assistant.”
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 58
Kudos: 734





	1. found

**Author's Note:**

> season 4 was an emotional trainwreck but entrapdak is still kind of going strong!!! if season 5 doesn't get here soon i'm gonna jump off a bridge

“It’s him!”

She cries out the words with confidence. That  _ is  _ him, it has to be. Amongst the clones, he stands out- without his armor he’s smaller, his bone structure sharper and more distinct than the rest. That’s  _ her  _ Hordak- she  _ knows  _ it.

Entrapta runs up to him, though he remains still as a statue. His eyes are green, that’s pretty unusual, but maybe it’s just a thing he can do that she didn’t know about. (Unlikely, but still.) She reaches out, but she hesitates- pulls back, just for a moment, wondering why he doesn’t respond to her movement. 

“Hordak...?”

Her voice is soft, quieter than usual. Even still she knows she’s loud enough to be heard by his hyper-sensitive ears, and yet he remains motionless, frozen still. Entrapta fights back a surge of emotion and countless questions run through her brain-  _ is he okay? Why isn’t he moving? What happened to him? _

_ Why did he abandon me? _

The last question slips into the fray unannounced, and she quickly shoos it away and refocuses on the task at hand. Her hair forming a step ladder underneath her feet, she raises herself to his height and checks his pulse with her fingers. The skin is ice cold under her touch, but there’s a heartbeat, to her relief.

“It’s okay, Hordak,” she says soothingly, brushing fallen strands of blue hair out of his face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’m going to fix you.” A spark of excitement bubbles in her chest- yes, that’s something she can  _ do _ , that’s a promise she can keep.

After being sure that her position has gone unnoticed and she’s safe to examine him for a while, she begins a thorough check-over of his body. He’s been through a fight, clearly- the armor that remains attached to his nervous system on his back is dented, and the rest of it has been tampered with by unknown hands. The thought of someone messing with his implants sends shivers down Entrapta’s spine- but she shakes her head and ignores the feeling. There is more important work to be done.

All the while, blank green eyes stare past her head into nothingness. She taps him on the cheek a few times- blows into his face once or twice, but he has no reactions. None of her sensory or reflex tests work either. He’s been reduced to a living statue.

It’s painful to look at, almost, but not enough to distract her from her work. She flips open a circuit board- this one has definitely been touched by hands that aren’t hers- several tiny switches have been flipped and screws loosened. Gritting her teeth, she does her best to return everything back to its original state, and-

Suddenly he moves, the muscle in the shoulder she’s leaning against for support suddenly spasming and shoving her away with surprising force. Entrapta squeaks and reels back, miffed and concerned all at once. Hordak seems to be awake, now; he’s looking at her with an unreadable expression, stony-faced and blank.

“Identify yourself,” he says. The tone of voice is cold and sharp and definitely Hordak’s, but for some reason it makes her uncomfortable. It doesn’t sound like  _ him _ , not really. It’s something much older and darker and far scarier.

“Er...it’s Entrapta.” She gives him a little wave and her best smile despite the circumstances. “Remember? I’m your...” The word gets caught in her throat. She searches desperately for an alternative, before finally choking out, “...lab assistant.”

“Lab assistant.” Hordak’s startling green eyes narrow for a moment, and her skin crawls as she feels him scanning her up and down. “I do not have a lab assistant. I am Serial Number 13145, servant of Horde Prime.”

She stares at him for a moment.

He stares back, emotionless.

“I think you’re broken,” she says, gently. “But, don’t worry! I can still fix you. I  _ know  _ I can fix you.” She knows, logically, that he’s not a machine, and that she can’t really  _ fix  _ him, in a mechanical sense- she can repair his exoskeleton the best she can, but whatever they’ve done to his mind is something she’s not sure if she can undo.

She leans forward to examine him further, but he flinches away and his eyes flash with warning. “Do not interfere with the subject until the rebooting process is complete.” He says the words as if he’s reading them off a page, dull and monotone. “Stand by.”

“Huh.” She swivels her head around, now taking into account the entirety of the room- there are others like him, very few, all of them lined up against the wall, all with open eyes and a computer monitor flashing beside them. Suddenly curious, she glances at the screen that her Hordak seems to be hooked up to- it displays a series of symbols, one she can vaguely make out as a percentage and a few more words.

_ Reboot 48% complete. _

“Ahhh!” A burst of excitement floods into her veins as she turns back to Hordak, almost expecting it to be the Hordak she remembers, thoughtful and willing to listen to her latest science rant. But he just stares through her unfeelingly, as if she isn’t even there.

“I think I know what’s happening,” she says despite him, ignoring the cold look on his face, “This computer is wired into your brain and nervous system. They’re systematically eradicating your memories!” She looks back at the computer. “But it doesn’t seem like they’re quite done yet...oh, this is  _ fascinating _ !” She pauses. “I mean, it’s very, very bad, because those memories include some very important things, but you get it.”

He doesn’t even blink. Apparently, he does  _ not  _ get it.

“Wait a minute.” She returns back to his side, scanning up and down his body, before her eyes finally fall at the top of his chest, around his collarbone. She reaches out and traces an empty, diamond-shaped hole with her fingers- her breath catches in her throat, and she looks back up at his unfaltering gaze. 

The crystal. Some of her best work. Her fingers rub the rough edges around the hole, meaning it had likely been forcibly removed. The crystal still had abilities that Hordak didn’t know about- some she had kept to herself, to use when they absolutely needed to. She’d almost forgotten about the crystal during her time on Beast Island- and now, it might be the key to the solution to this problem.

Even still, he might be too far gone. Forty-five percent is...far too much, in her personal opinion. But there’s still the remainder to go on the reboot, whatever that  _ really  _ meant, and that meant there was still fifty-five percent Hordak dormant in there. And fifty-five percent was incredibly  _ good  _ by scientist standards.

She looks at him and smiles.

“I think I know how we can fix you.”


	2. memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2 is here! i'm so sorry about this, but we gotta have some angst before we can get to the fluffy reunion. i have one planned though, i swear!  
(maybe)

The woman does _not_ stop talking.

He doesn’t find it to be a bad thing, not really. In fact, it distracts himself from the pressure in his skull that he can feel slowly siphoning away every shard of what he had once been- her chattering is a welcome distraction. He’s not sure _why_ it’s so welcome; according to his protocol, she is unauthorized to be in this room. 

A few times she leaves, and promises to be back. She is always true to her word, and he can’t help but wonder where she goes- perhaps it has something to do with the fact no guards have found them yet. And yet, despite the blaring alarms in his brain, he lets her fiddle and tinker with him all she wants.

He doesn’t understand why. At the moment, though, he doesn’t really understand much of anything- there is a gaping hole in his head, filled with shadows and nothing. It’s annoying at best and painful at worst- a gap so wide he can’t begin to fill it, gradually pulling apart everything that he knows and understands.

Maybe he lets her because he likes the way her hands feel on his skin. That makes no sense, but at the same time, it does- she’s _warm_, so warm against the chill of his body, and he may not be able to understand much of anything right now but he does understand the sensation. The warmth means safety. It’s something he can _trust_.

_Trust..._

Why does that word hurt so badly?

He watches her while she works, most of the time. She’s a diligent worker, too- dedicated in everything she does, and mostly successful. She seems discouraged, though, even during the best of days- she talks to him about a crystal, a word he’s unfamiliar with, and how she’s unable to locate it. She asks him if he knows where it is- and he doesn’t respond, because he’s not made to respond, he’s made to serve only one thing.

One thing...

What was it again?

It couldn’t be her, could it? He scans her up and down, curiously. She doesn’t have the appearance of a warlord, or great monarch. He knows that’s his purpose, but he doesn’t fully remember _who_, and it’s going to drive him insane if something doesn’t happen soon. The void in his head grows bigger by the day, and before long, it will consume him.

Today, she looks more down than usual. Though he thinks today, it could have only been an hour or so- the passage of time was slow and indistinguishable to him. Rather than her usually upbeat persona, she looks discouraged, and she moves more slowly.

“Hi, Hordak,” she greets him, just as she has every time she returns. The first few times he reminds her his name is not Hordak, and each time she brushed it off, so he’s just accepted it. She starts at the computer monitor today, fingers clicking on the keypad, eyes laser focused on the numbers on the screen.

“Up two percent,” she sighs, and for a moment, he thinks he sees her eyes glistening in the light. She looks back at him. “Hordak, I’m starting to think I can’t do this on my own.” She returns to his side and begins refitting his exoskeleton, hands wandering along the collarpiece and fingers brushing his skin. “I can’t find the crystal anywhere, and I’m running out of time- sooner or later, someone is going to find us out, and-”

She stops and shakes her head. “No, no, I can’t think like that.” She pats him on the shoulder reassuringly with a tendril of hair, as if _he’s_ the one who needs to be reassured. “We can figure this out.” There is confidence in her voice now, but it’s shaky. 

A long lost emotion stirs in his chest- he _wants_ to reach out and tell her everything is going to be okay, to encourage her to keep going, but he holds himself back. There is no logical reason why he should want to do something like that- it goes against everything in his body, everything he’s ever been told to do.

So, he simply remains still and silent. He lets her work because he’s not sure what he would do to stop her- and he’s not sure why he would want to stop her. She mentioned her name, he remembers, but for some reason it’s already escaped him. 

What had she said she was? His lab assistant? It didn’t sound right. It’s not like he should have known what the _right_ term was, since he was quite sure they’d never met, but somehow “assistant” just wasn’t the right word, and he knew it instinctively. Like some long lost memory was stirring in the void, begging to be released.

“Are you sure?” he says. It’s difficult to speak. The words come out clipped and sharp, feeling unnatural and wrong in his mouth. It immediately gives her pause, drawing away from the latest switchboard she has open on his body, her hair electrified and standing on end. 

“Sorry?” she says, through the screwdriver between her teeth. “I’m sure about a lot of things. Anything specific?” There’s a shine in her eyes- he can tell she’s thrilled he’s speaking without being spoken to, but she’s holding her peace about it well enough.

“I don’t think you were my...lab assistant.” 

He forces the words out slowly, but he’s quite sure of what he’s saying. It’s wrong, it’s all wrong, and he doesn’t understand why. But what he does understand is that something isn’t right, and maybe this woman can clear things up.

“Oh...” He can feel the excitement in her voice and he can see a smile tugging at her lips even though she seems to fight it. “Hordak, can you tell me _why_ you think that?” She really is smiling now, her face awash in the green light and a brilliant smile stretched across her face.

“I don’t...”

Something in him twitches and struggles. Something deep in his software struggles to the surface, fighting through miles and miles of inky black nothingness, trying so desperately to reach his mouth. He feels the muscles in his throat flex and he fights with everything left in him to speak.

“You’re my lab _partner_.”

_There_ it is, and it comes with a river of relief and uncertainty crashing over him, so violent and sudden that he thinks he might break. The woman- her name is so close to him now, barely teetering on the edge of the gap in his mind- looks like she’s just been given the whole world, and her smile is so bright it should be blinding. She lets out a squeak of excitement and cups his face in her hands, and he finds himself melting into the warmth.

“You remember!” Her eyes are watery, and that surprises him- she doesn’t seem like she’d be the type of person to cry. But maybe he doesn’t know what that kind of person is anymore. Maybe he doesn’t understand _anything_ about _anyone_ anymore.

But he thinks maybe, just maybe, he understands her.

“Hordak, you _must_ remember when you lost the crystal.” She launches so quickly into her next objective that it almost gives him whiplash, but somehow he follows the conversation, as if he’s done it before. “If you remember where you lost it then I know where I can _find_ it!”

She’s still holding his face and staring into his eyes. “Please,” she says then, softer, and it sounds almost as if she’s begging him. “Please, Hordak. Try to remember.” He can feel her staring into his eyes, depthless and full of an emotion he isn’t equipped to understand.

He can feel her warm hands on his face and he can hear her breathing, in fact, he’s close enough to hear her heartbeat, soaring at an incredible rate. Every sensation is overwhelming, and he suddenly feels as if he’s being strangled by his own mind, wrestling with the mechanics locked into his head, chipping away at his individuality.

He knows the answer to her question, he knows he does, it’s somewhere floating around in the void and he’s so close to it. He reaches for it, feebly, but he falls just short every time, clawing with a desperation he didn’t understand. His lungs feel empty of air and an excruciating pain erupts at the base of his skull but-

But he can feel her hands and hear her pulse and suddenly he remembers her name- Entrapta- and then everything is white. He feels a burning sensation in his chest, like a memory, and suddenly he knows the answer to her question with certainty. For just a brief moment he knows _exactly_ who she is, and he remembers _exactly_ how he feels about her.

“The Sanctum.” He chokes out the words as if it’s the last thing he’s ever going to say.

The sensation fades. Entrapta speaks again, but her words fade from the ringing in his ears, and her name once again escapes his grasp. He lulls back into unmoving silence, once again becoming as still as a statue, memory gone.

He doesn’t know when she leaves. Time has become blurred and slow, everything inconsequential. He doesn’t have the strength to search for the memories anymore- he’s just so _tired_. Tired from all the things he can’t seem to recall. Tired from _everything_.

He simply stands still and wades through the nothingness of his mind.

~

Entrapta is gone. The lab is empty. The reconditioning clones all frozen and silent, with nothing but the gentle hum of the machines they’re hooked up to filling the room. It’s deadly quiet, with not so much as the slightest sound interrupting the stillness of the laboratory.

The door opens. Several of the clone’s brothers walk through and one of them heads over to the smallest clone, the defect, and checks the screen. It makes no noise of satisfaction, but in the soft glow of the screen it sees the percentage.

_Reboot 100% complete._

She was too late.


	3. hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the support met by this fic has been overwhelming and i thank everyone who left kudos, commented, and read. you guys are the reason i have the strength and desire to create, and i hope the last two chapters of this fic don't disappoint!  
just hang on a little longer, i swear the reunion is soon...it is Soon....the entrapdak thirst shall be quenched.

Leaving the ship was easy. This _next_ bit was going to be the problem.

Entrapta was hesitant to leave Hordak behind- even though she was a very independent person and never found much use for social interaction, it made her uneasy to leave him with the rebooting still underway. But, according to her calculations, she had time. Enough time to pop back down to Etheria, find the crystal- _ his _crystal- and beam back up in time for dinner.

To most it would sound like an impossible task. To Entrapta, it sounds like a fun vacation.

She’s kind of regretting not taking Bow up on his offer to help, though. They’ve got their own drama that she would really rather not be involved in- but now that she’s by herself finding her way through an abandoned Fright Zone, she’s rather wishing she had someone to keep an eye out while she marvels at the pure destruction around her. The Fright Zone has certainly looked better- especially some of the main corridors, which look like they’ve been torn apart by some raging beast.

It’s also, coincidentally, completely abandoned.

Usually, there would be at least _ some _guards around, all of them quickly getting out of her way and casting wary glances at her as she perused by. But now there were none, barely a stiff breeze whistling through the columns of machinery and ventilation towers. Entrapta wasn’t particularly bothered by it- but there was something about the way every alley seemed to glare at her from the darkness, empty and cold.

But, she presses on. She knows _ exactly _what she’s here for, and she’s not leaving until she finds it. So _what_ if it was a little spooky and lonely? She’s dealt with spooky and lonely for the last few months of her life, so this was _easy_. (Despite the fact it had almost killed her in the end. But Entrapta didn't concern herself with such trifling matters.)

She’s memorized the path from her old chambers to the Sanctum- she follows every twist and turn with certainty, recalling how her feet sound echoing against the metal walls around her. She’s always liked this part of the Horde’s base- she feels safe, surrounded by years worth of technological structures. It reminds her of home, in some odd way.

Maybe she shouldn’t cling so much to the time she’d spent with Hordak, before everything had gone wrong. Maybe she should just forget about it and move on- she’s here to further science, to see if her experimental backup programs she’d installed into the crystal really worked. The fact that she viewed Hordak as her friend was only one part of it.

But when she steps into the Sanctum she knows she can’t just move on.

It’s basically a wreck. It looks as if it’s been repaired once and then destroyed again- Entrapta’s eyes follow the massive cuts and lines through every exposed wall and pipeline in it’s destructive reach. She can’t help but gaze in wonder at the carnage, lost in thought as to what could have caused such a massacre.

There’s something about the furious, zig-zagging patterns across the walls that give her pause. They’re done haphazardly, without purpose or intention, and the more she studies them the more they remind her of something. Angry, aimless, misguided- she can’t quite figure out what they make her think of, but she’s sure she’ll remember soon.

She creeps through the darkness of the Sanctum, not perturbed by the groaning wounded machinery and the severed wires sparking with electricity. It’s melancholy, almost poetically tragic in a way- broken and pathetic, only a shadow of what it used to be. Before everything, Entrapta knew that they would have never let it fall into such disrepair.

A loud thump from the darkness startles her out of her thoughts, and she jumps to attention, scanning for the source. Something hisses loudly, followed by another series of clatters and metallic thuds. Feet small enough to be a rodent skitter across the floor, and Entrapta stays rooted to the spot, squinting into the darkness.

Yellow eyes appear in the darkness and an angry chirp pierces the air. To Entrapta’s shock, Imp struggles into view, tiny wings flapping furiously as he attempts to dislodge a wire tangled across his body. His teeth slash helplessly at the bindings, before his beady eyes find Entrapta standing bewildered across the room.

He scampers over to her immediately, letting out wordless squawks that anyone would be able to translate. “Imp!” Entrapta exclaims, falling to her knees and beginning to gently untangle the wires from the creature’s leathery membranes. “Aw, little guy, what did you get yourself into...”

Imp pouts silently as she works the wires out from his wings. It’s been a good while since she’s seen Imp, but clearly he hasn’t forgotten her- he jumps onto her shoulders without hesitation and situates himself comfortably in her hair. Entrapta reaches up and scratches him behind the ear- and just as she remembers, it immediately earns an impressively loud purr from Imp, who wriggles contentedly.

He opens his mouth and a recording plays, one of a voice she’s very, _ very _familiar with.

_ “Entrapta.” _

“Yep, that _ is _my name, good job remembering.” The recording sends chills down her spine, but she ignores them and looks back at Imp, who seems to have forgotten his sour mood and is perched happily on a purple hair tendril. “Say, Imp, you wouldn’t happen to know where Hordak’s crystal went, do you?”

To her surprise, the tiny creature seems to consider her question, head tilting to the side as his ears wriggle in thought. He then lets out a squawk and reaches into his vest- producing, to her shock, the object of her desire. A purple crystal, engraved with letters from the First One’s language, and though it’s a little scuffed around the edges, it’s in one piece.

“Oh, Imp, you _ wonderful _ little...” She squints at him for a moment. “Okay, I don’t actually know _ what _you are, but good job!” She raises a strand of hair for a high five, and it’s met with Imp’s tiny paw- a trick she’d taught him long ago, to Hordak’s unamusement.

For a moment she gazes at the crystal, thumb tracing the tiny engravings embedded in the glass. She’d spent hours on this tiny little gadget alone, poured her heart and soul into it- if anything could help Hordak, it was this. It didn’t just power his exoskeleton- it did much more, all entirely precautionary and all very, very needed right about now.

As she looks at it, she’s swept up into a memory, one that feels a million years old.  
  


_ He’s looking better today. Much, much better. Entrapta can’t help but steal sideways glances at him and marvel at her work- he moves easier, more precisely, without a grimace or the cracking and straining of joints. He’s been a little more open, too- in fact, he said something earlier that she almost thought might have been a joke. _

_ Hordak isn’t one to let her accomplishments go unnoticed, either. Lonnie came in earlier with a tray of tiny finger sandwiches- and though they were crude, and the Horde soldier clearly looked a little miffed about taking time out of her day to make them, Entrapta found the gesture deeply moving. And when pressed about it, Hordak had simply shrugged and pretended he didn’t know anything about it. _

_ He can keep his dignity. He _ is _ supposed to be the all-powerful Hordak, of course. _

_ Eventually, she decides to ask him about the defect- her curiosity can’t be contained much longer. Mutations are just another branch of science, after all, and one that she finds endlessly fascinating. “It must hurt, huh?” _

_ Hordak pauses what he’s doing and thinks for a moment, eyes focused on his task, but she knows he’s listening. “It does.” As always, he’s concise and to the point. Hordak was never one to mince words. “It would get worse by the day.” _

_ He begins work again, as a distraction. Entrapta does the same thing. Perhaps they’re more similar than either of them realize. _

_ “And is it worse today?” _

_ Hordak considers this solemnly for a moment. _

_ “No.” _

_ It’s just one word, but it means everything to her. _

Entrapta’s fist closes around the crystal and she clenches her jaw. “I have to get this back to Hordak,” she says to Imp. “I think...” she stops and swallows back a lump forming in her throat, fighting off the unwelcome emotions rising in her, stirred up by the memory. “I think he’s in a lot of trouble.”

Imp seems to know the name of his master and lets out a chirp of agreement. The chill of the crystal presses into her skin, and she knows that all she needs to do is get it back to him. If she can just get the crystal to him, everything would be fine. She could reverse the effects of the rebooting. She could...

She could finally get _ answers _. 

~

“And the reconditioning?” 

Horde Prime’s voice is smooth and cold. It is the only sound in the chamber, echoing off the walls and making every soldier in the room stand a little straighter, a little more alert, a little less distracted. 

“It’s complete.”

“Good.” He motions with his hand. “Now, bring my wayward brother in. _ Please _.”

The _ please _is a sarcastic tag-on, but it’s dangerous enough to make the order be executed in double time. After a few moments, the what-was-once-Hordak is standing before his leader, rigid and still. Bright green eyes stare straight ahead, and though he still doesn’t quite match his brothers thanks to his exoskeleton, he looks similar enough.

“Your armor is impressive,” Prime begins, slitted green eyes scanning his brother up and down with quiet curiosity. “How you came by it is a mystery to me. It does seem to be combatting your _ defects _-” he says the word like poison, spitting it out slowly- “rather well.”

“As a result,” he continues, folding his hands over his lap, “We will be sending you to the field on a recon mission, assessing the damage to your ill-fated little venture and seeing if it’s in any way salvageable.” His voice is drawling and mocking, but the statue-like clone doesn’t seem to notice or care.

With only the wave of a hand the clone is gone, turning on heel and beginning a mindless march to the surface of the planet he does not know the name of and nor cares to learn. Inside his head is nothing but vacancy and a singular order- he is consumed by nothingness, and is nothing, barely an empty shell with one mission in mind. The silence of his thoughts does not bother him in the slightest.

Hordak is gone.


	4. rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promised you a cheesy reunion and a cheesy reunion you shall have.

The voice is in his head.

Thick with mockery and laced with disgust, just as he remembered. He can feel the talons of Horde Prime digging into his skull, effortlessly and with little care for what he damages on his way. But, he feels no pain; this is what he was always meant to be, this is what he had been created for. Following orders.

He had been good at it. The _ best _. But he was far from the perfect soldier and Prime knew that from the beginning, and as a result, he was cast underfoot, disregarded, unnoticed and unneeded. He was nothing. He was dust in the wind.

_ He _had once had a name. But that name was gone now, lost to him forever, submerged beneath a sea of blackness. He has a new mission, now- it’s the only thing that keeps him moving, that keeps his heart beating. Free will is lost on him, and he only knows to march forward and do what he is told.

It does feel wrong. Of _ course _it does. But he simply does not care.

He _ can’t _care. 

It’s a miserable existence, but he doesn’t know or understand enough to pin it with such a term. Consumed by nothing, lost in a sea of white noise, knowing only what he is told and nothing else. It’s a fate worse than death.

So, he marches. His feet meet rocky ground and he can see a row of his brothers beside him, all dressed in white, terribly out of place on the war-torn landscape. They’re blank points of light in a new world full of color and needless drivel.

He does not see why Horde Prime is so interested in this place. The towers of machinery and metal are nothing but stacks of bolts and screws to him- he feels as though he should recognize them, should feel even the slightest glimpse of pride for an accomplishment he does not understand. It’s infuriating, the not knowing, but it’s fleeting.

Prime’s voice speaks in his head, faintly and quietly in the background, a permanent reminder of what he must do. Scan the area, eradicate all stray life, groom and trim whatever was left of a war-stricken base and prepare it for his arrival. Horde Prime is nothing if not thorough.

The clones are dutiful soldiers. They shoot at anything that moves, dispersing into groups of two and three that eventually dwindle down to one. What was once Hordak is now on his own, continuing his mindless march through the smoldering remains of his empire. Perhaps it was a kindness for him not to remember- it had truly fallen from grace in such a short time.

He turns to look towards the sun, which is now setting on an unfamiliar horizon. He feels no sensation like nostalgia, but the sight of it does stir something within him, something strange and definitely not according to protocol.

He is about to resume when a voice interrupts him.

“Hordak?”

He freezes. He does not turn to find the source of the voice, as he has no reason to. The name means nothing to him, nor should it, and even the quiet familiarity of the voice has no effect. He takes a step away from the voice, green eyes trained on the distant horizon, mind focused on only one thing. 

“Hordak, I know that’s you.” Something in him twists- he _ knows _ that voice, he recognizes it, barely on the outskirts of a thoughtless void. “I know you can hear me. I don’t know what that creep has done to you, but please,” the voice is gentle, so despairing, and he does not feel emotion but somehow he _ hurts- _“please just look at me.”

He turns.

She’s standing there, something clenched in her hands. Her face means nothing to him- she’s just another objective of the mission. “I’m too late, I know,” she says. “There’s no more Hordak in you anymore.” She looks so _ sad- _ why does she look so _ sad _? She’s just another strange face. He doesn’t understand why she would care. 

“I’m sorry I let him get you,” she continues. “I know I said it was for science, to figure out how he planned on rebooting you, but it’s not.” The light on the planet has begun to fade into night, the horizon turning a brilliant purple and orange, colors that look like nothing but grayscale to him. “You’re my friend, Hordak. And I’m kind of historically terrible at friends.”

She reaches out.

Something in her hand shines in the light.

“But I can fix that track record. I can _ help _. We can get all of this stuff cleared up and we’ll forget this ever happened.” She smiles, and it’s such a brilliant, beautiful smile, as if he’s seeing it for the first time. “Just trust me.”

_ Don’t. _

It’s Horde Prime’s voice, deep and booming.

His brain rattles and suddenly he feels as though he’s not in control of his own body- he wants to trust the stranger, even though half of her words make no sense. He wants so _ badly _to kneel down and beg for forgiveness of a crime he doesn’t remember committing. Something in him fights, but it’s too weak, and the voice of Prime snuffs it out like a candle in the wind.

He speaks, and his voice is not his own.

“I don’t know you.”

~

“I don’t know you.”

Hordak’s voice saying those words hurts more than anything Entrapta ever felt before, and that was considering a lot. She stiffens and stands up straighter, hair fluffing up and readying for attack. The brainwashed Hordak is armed, and the pure deadness in his eyes is nothing but terrifying. Sure, the power of friendship works up to a point, but Entrapta prefers to rely on tried-and-true science.

She dodges at just the right time as he fires, rolling out of the way and quickly getting out of range. He moves stiffly, slowly, as if every movement is painful, and maybe it is- but that’s the last thing she’s concerned with, with her brainwashed friend bearing down on her being at the top of that list. His movements aren’t reckless, either- they’re trained and precise, with every step perfectly executed and perfectly planned.

“Hordak,” she continues, growing increasingly more insistent, “I don’t know if you can really hear me right now, but just know I promise not to hold this against you.” She sidesteps another rain of shots- each one coming disturbingly close to finding its mark. “It’s been a really awful couple of months, hasn’t it?”

The firing increases, his tactics become more aggressive. She darts into range, hand brandishing the crystal, so close to reaching his collar- but she falls short and has to drop to the ground in order to avoid another hailstorm of bullets. His movements are graceful and fluid- she almost pauses to admire him, before remembering exactly what’s going on.

A growl of frustration escapes him, and for a moment she sees a flash of the old Hordak in him- angry and irrational. His grace and ease temporarily become faster and more aggressive, easier for Entrapta to dodge. She _ knows _ this Hordak- this version of Hordak is quick to anger and quick to forget what he knows about combat and just _ hit something _.

She can _ handle _this Hordak.

“But the thing is,” she continues, earning a snarl and a charge from the shell of her former lab partner, “I know you don’t have any idea who I am or what I’m talking about, and all you know is whatever Horde Prime is telling you to do, which is unfortunate because I _ love you _, and-”

Time seems to stop.

Hordak’s eyes glitch, just for a moment, flashing from green to red.

For just a moment he can _ see _her.

Really, truly see her.

“Entrapta-”

He breathes out her name and it sounds like a song. He can hear Horde Prime’s snarl of anger in the back of his head but it’s the last thing on his mind. She wastes no time- without fear of his weapon she steps forward, crystal in hand. He feels the mechanics in his body whir and the spikes in his head dig deeper, harder, trying desperately to regain hold, and it takes every molecule in his body to stay rooted to the spot.

She takes one of his trembling hands in hers, and without even a shadow of worry on her face, she reaches up and presses the crystal ever so gently back into his collar. A jolt of electricity runs down his spine and he jerks suddenly, his body folding inwards as pain wracks every inch of whatever is left of his nervous system. Prime’s cry of rage fades into white noise and blends with the ringing in his ears, and suddenly he _ remembers _.

Hordak’s vision is blurry and tears stream from his eyes as the pain fades and the memories return. One by one, and then all at once, raging like a river, flooding into his mind without cease. Entrapta’s hands are still wrapped around his, and though he can’t quite see her through the mist, he melts into her touch and clings to her hands like a lifeline.

His vision clears, at last, and she has a patient, confident smile on her face. The moment they lock eyes he recalls the last piece of vital information and it knocks all the air out of his lungs. She didn’t betray him. She never had. _ And _ she was supposed to be _ dead _.

“I’m sorry,” is all he has the strength to say.

It’s not something he’s ever said. Hordak has never felt the need to apologize to anyone. 

_ I’m sorry? _

Entrapta doesn’t have a moment to question his apology when suddenly his arms are around her, face buried in her shoulder, Hordak’s entire body shivering from head to toe. She freezes for a moment, before relaxing, her hair gently twirling itself around his trembling body and pulling him close. He repeats the phrase again- _ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry _\- but it’s muffled and impossibly quiet.

She pauses, thoughtfully, and suddenly the pieces begin to fall into place. Why wouldn’t Hordak have come looking for her? She thought maybe he just didn’t have a use for her anymore- but that wasn’t true, was it? He still needed her for the war machines. She knew her own worth, and she knew Hordak did too.

So why would he have left her on Beast Island?

Maybe he hadn’t _ known _to look there?

“You didn’t abandon me,” she murmurs to him, hands stroking his back tenderly. She takes a long, shuddering breath. “You didn’t leave me to die on Beast Island. You _ couldn’t _look for me. You had no reason to.”

Hordak seems to find the strength to pull his head up. Entrapta suddenly notes they’re only inches from each other, and in quite close proximity, too, but she shelves the feelings it awakes in her for another day. “No,” he says, and his voice scrapes a growl, red eyes flashing with pure fury. “I was told you were a _ traitor _.”

There he is, back to old, angry Hordak. But it’s not a problem. Entrapta can _ handle _ old, bitter Hordak, and even this is an upgrade. He _ lets _her cradle him like a lost kitten, when old Hordak would have pulled away from her quickly. “I would never abandon you,” he says then, softer this time. “And I never will.”

Entrapta smiles. She reaches up and cups the side of his face in her hand. “I’m glad,” she says. “Because I really, really missed you. _ Partner _,” she adds with a smirk. This seems to catch him off guard- he pauses for a moment, before the tiniest of smiles ghost his mouth.

“I missed you, too.” His voice is quiet, almost hesitant. But there’s real emotion in there somewhere- she can feel it. It’s mildly terrifying, but also endearing, to think that she’s wormed her way into the heart of the previously thought heartless Horde general. 

They’re on their own now, with no more Horde to serve under. Horde Prime will probably be there soon to find out why his defective brother has gone silent, and by the time he does, they’ll be long gone. Entrapta likes that idea quite a bit. In fact, they both do.

“Oh, and Hordak?”

“Hmm?”

“I meant it when I said I loved you.”

_ Mental note: Hordak apparently is able to blush. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and this is the conclusion of the fic. thank you so much to everyone who read, i'm beyond thrilled that i decided to turn this into a series. i LOVE this pairing and i will probably write more for them in the future, so keep an eye out. you can find me on tumblr at little-writing-squiid, and if you need to scream about this ship or literally anything else, come talk to me. i'm always willing to make new friends.


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